UH Law Schools 'Ahahui O Hawaii awarded $49,000 to help Native Hawaiians get into law school

HONOLULU - For a second year the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is supporting the efforts of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa‘s William S. Richardson School of Law‘s ʻAhahui o Hawaiʻi to conduct Law School Admission Test workshops for Native Hawaiians. Law students led by Derek Kauanoe launched this program to conduct outreach and to increase the number of Native Hawaiians admitted to law school. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs awarded ʻAhahui o Hawaiʻi a grant of $49,003.00. In 2005, it granted the program $29,065.

"We are very pleased that OHA has recognized how much this important student initiative has already been successful and what great promise it holds for the future, said Dean Avi Soifer.

Since OHA funded this initiative, there has been a noteworthy increase in the number of Native Hawaiians applying to and gaining admission to the Law School. Of the nine participants in the program who applied last year, five were admitted and two others were placed on the waitlist. This was a much higher percentage than for the general applicant pool because the Law School‘s ranking among the top 20 in the country in difficulty of admission, measured by the ratio of applications to admissions.